Nintendo 3DS: Is It Holding Back The Wii U?

"Nintendo has always been strong in the handheld market. It still seems to be able to cater for the portable audience even during a time of smartphones and other mobile devices that are stating to pick up gaming momentum." | Explosion

Exactly. Different mechanics, markets and therefor different audiences usually. I think that has a lot to do with why Sony has been so successful with consoles as Nintendo has been so successful with handhelds.

I agree with you 100%, but what would make this analysis kind of true. Is if the author pointed out how Nintendo launching 2 brand new devices so close to each other. Probably skewed development resources towards the 3ds side of things since it launched first and too struggled out of the gate with software... But I don't think its any of the factors that this person is pursuing at though! Some are just down right laughable.

I feel you man, this is the worst type of read you can find out there! I sometimes wonder if these articles are jokes or just made by competitors. Either way, they are a waste of human life!

The fact that I have my 3DS XL with my CPP XL with me nearly all the time, doesn't change the way I feel about my Wii U. I've been playing both MH3U for the 3DS and Wii U for nearly a month now at work on the 3DS, and at home on the Wii U; as of recently I've also been playing the hell out of the Rayman Legends App which has daily and weekly challenges and leader-board support... If anything the 3DS connectivity is HELPING my Wii U from collecting dust with MH3U!!!

why is it current gen? what basis to you make this statement?? is it not new with a new way of playing and interacting? does it not offer 5 player games such as rayman legens! does ps360 offer 5 player games? is it not next gen in your eyes because it does not have a coffee table projector like 720 (funny) does it not do many of the same things that ps4 will offer?

ohh i see you are one of many sheep whom see that it does not offer all powerful ram/cpu even if all 3 new consoles include AMD hardware! so it based on just power is not next gen! I dont think that ps4 and 720 are next gen because they offer nothing a pc has not offered for 5 years!!! plus whats new about the way you play them? same controller! same stuck with playing on a TV! at least i can play great games on the wii u controller whilst my family watch TV and i can play rayman challenge whilst watching football all in the same room, and also flip straight over to miiverse or the internet for help in a game whilst pausing the game for me! i could never do that with any console before!

Besides not being a powerful system, it lacks next generation games. Games that are not only new ips but break from the status quo and push gaming forward. Like the portal franchise a puzzle game that had no connection or resemblance to tetris For years all puzzle games were and played like tetris. Portal change that by giving gamers a first person view puzzle game were the goal was to escape from aperture science lab that was taking over by the wity evil a. I. glados. Something evolutionary like uncharted bringing killswitch game play with tomb raider theme, game design. Adding for the first time in a game the ability to shoot from trees, rocks, ladders, and go into hand combat and back to shooting without any lag or loading time. Excellent facial expressions even during combat. The wii u offers the same gaming experience as this current generation. It would of being revolutionary if say wii u owners were able to play wii u games at Starbucks, the park, DMV office, etc. But due to the 3DS it prevents it from doing it. What's up with $60.00 plus tax for current generation ports like deux ex human revolution, batman arkham city, etc. They could not copy Sony by bringing remastered editions of last generation title packages for $40.00 such as batman arkham collection both arkham Asylum and arkham city......

At least the PS3 brought exclusives during launch like resistance fall of man. First fps game were the soldier becomes the alien he is eradicating. First console fps to offer 40 player online for free. Motorstorm an offroad racer to offer insane visuals along with races of a bike, semi truck, dune buggy all in the same race. Also the PS3 at the time allow customers to use Linux which led to using Firefox browser, open office, and pretty much do your essay or run your small business.

Lol you finished crying now? Also you could run Linux in the original Xbox so that's nothing new plus why would you spend £599 on a console to run Linux on when you can get a windows pc to do the same job for £200 and not have any issue with drives connect it to an Exchange server and more.

Also resistance was an ok game and looking at the sales numbers from 1 to 3 not a popular game.

I also disagree about motor storm, the graphics were ok but nothing special and I remember having a game on the psx where you could race different cars and bikes in the same race so this is nothing new. In fact super skid marks 2 on the Amiga 32 you could do that and if you really want to be picky it even let you race as a cow which motor storm dose not.

If you had said motor storm 2 looked amazing ice agree and this was a far better game than the 1st one.

Plus you say the ps3 brought some exclusives it did but if you really want to be picky so has the Wiiu. We have zombieu which is the 1st real core zombie game since res 4, mariou which can handle 5 players and Nintendo land which can also handle 5 players. As far as im aware the ps4 can't do 5 players.

Now we can go on and on and on about who's dad is bigger than the others but I was not sagging Sony off I was making an example of the Wiiu now and the ps3 7 years ago. Now if you would like me to pick your dummy up for you I will and ill also put it on some string and pin it to your top so when it falls out again you can put it back in your self.

Well the N64 came out after PSX, so technically it is considered next gen to a certain extent. Same with vita being out a year after 3Ds.

And wii.U being 6 years after the wii, 1 year before the 720 and ps4...and still stuck on 720p lol. In terms of power, nintendo lags behind 1 generation.

Their games are awesome, but they need to stick to cheaper consoles.

I didn't really start the comment to flame the Wii.U itself, just the business practices of Nitendo. Very similar to apple, they tell us what we want, instead of listening to the gamers themselves.

Wii.U is still a machine I will be getting, but at 300+ it's not justifying me getting it over the ps3/360/3Ds/Vita with the lack of game for a brand new console base!

With a price tag of 200$, the Wii.U would most likely decimate the competition, and make both Sony and Microsoft either push out next gen sooner or possibly have a price drop in current.

You guys have to stop talking with emotion and put hard logic into play. I'm not saying my logic is right or wrong, but it's logic and not tied in with my emotion and the fact that I prefer Nintendo games over other types.

@kB0 so what you are saying is that the PSX and N64 were not in the same gen? and the same with the PSV and 3DS? If we go by that logic the WiiU is next gen as it was released after the PS3 and 360 in fact the Wii is not the same gen as the 360 because it was released before the Wii? Come on don't try and cove things up. the PSX N64 saturn were all the same gen. The Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube and Xbox are the same gen the same with the Wii, 360 and PS3 and its now the same with the WiiU, PS4 and Next xbox.

Next gen is not about pure power it is about the next generation of the company's home/handheld console. Just like the Iphone 5 is Apples next gen Iphone as it is not a s powerful as the S3 but its apples next line.

I do agree with the logic and as I have said on here before Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have given the gaming industry a lot of + points and if it was not for them we would not have what we have today.

I always buy all the consoles that are out as since the NES days and I will carry on doing this as long as they keep giving me what I want.

The one thing I don't want is to go back to the days of the consoles all doing the same thing and nothing different. I want Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to go there own ways with there consoles and offer us different experiences and way to play games.

WiiU will get it's shine soon. Don't listen to all the naysay about Nintendo at E3. IGN has stated by contacting Nintendo Of America that besides watching a 70 minute presentation...huge games will be announced.

I don't think so, but there are some great games and experiences that you can only have on the 3DS, sometimes rivaling the console big brother. What Nintendo needs to do is demonstrate to non-Nintendo fans the differences and illustrate it, through great software. Whether that be through first or second party.

Third party support is necessary to also demonstrate that the console is a viable alternative among all the competition.

As an example some of my friends have begun to buy the WiiU for several reasons. They have grown tired of their shooter games and wish to experience something different. They want to know what some of the hallmark games right now, so that they can buy/rent/play them and see what the system has the potential to deliver.

So far they love Need for Speed on it, some like Monster Hunter, some like Lego City (well almost all of them) and its a toss between Zombie U, Batman and Sonic Racing.

The 3DS has had more time to iron out some kinks and they continue to do so. Soon Nintendo will have a unified, coherent system and this can only make things better.

I must also say that the MiiVerse is a great place to discuss gaming and game related issues. Its a safe place free of trolling, and absurdities and you cant just randomly join and start flamebait war or something like that.

The community feels at ease and it focuses on what the deal is which is gaming.

I think I'll end this by stating something one of my die hard Call of Duty friends said, as he was playing the new Rayman App Challenge on the WiiU..

"You know I would never even consider playing this on any other system, even if it was made available. But some how on WiiU I love this game and I can see myself playing Nintendo games. Just feels right"

I think that's the strength of the console. You can be a kid again, with Nintendo on whatever you play.

While everyone agrees that yes handhelds and consoles are different markets with different audiences. Is it just me that notices how Sony is using the vita in conjunction with the PS3 and then the PS4 (knack is a PS4 game that will be playable on the vita it will not be ported over nor it will be downsize for portable gaming just hit remote play and play it on the vita). See Nintendo had the golden opportunity to use the amazing gamepad tablet lol lol and allow wii u owners to play wii u games at the DMV office, the park, Starbucks, etc. The reason it didn't happen was it would of cannibalize the 3DS sales and stolen it's market. So yes in a way the 3DS did held back the wii u. I guess nobody paid attention to that small detail due to we are stuck in the nineties.

I think the author thinks that Nintendo is spending way too much attention on the 3DS rather than focusing on what/how to kick start sales for the Wii U (which is the more costly to Nintendo than the 3DS).

Sure we do not know what Nintendo has in store with the Wii U other than the fact that those juggernaut 1st party games will be coming. However just like with the original Wii the 3rd party support is truly lacking. In this day & age 3rd party games drive the market & without it your system can only do so much with only 1st party games.

So far Nintendo is spending WAY too much on the 3DS...understandably cause it is their most successful system currently. Though it looks right now that even Nintendo is ignoring the Wii U as well.

In my opinion yes it is, and I will tell you why. Nintendo has put so much into 3DS software (unlike at its launch) and failed to put more effort into Wii U's launch window. They should have learned from the 3DS launch. There was a lack of software and therefor lack of sales (not to mention the price). Nintendo did the same thing with N64, accept back then SM64 was groundbreaking,and made the system worth the purchase.